Grading machine



Oct. 31, "1939. .1. B. SMITH GRADING MACHINE Filed Dec. 5, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Qct. 31, 1939. J. B. SMITH GRADING MACHINE Filed Dec. 5, 1937 Patented Oct. 31, 1939 I I I UNITED STATES yATEN'i" OFFICE GRADING MACHINE Joseph B. Smith, Havana, Ill.

Application December 3, 1937, Serial No. 177,940

7 Claims. (Cl. 37-178) This invention relates to improvements in road any usual latch arrangement I, together with a graders. notched sector 8, is mounted on the tractor plat- Said invention has for one of its objects the form I, a rock-shaft 9 operated by the lever havproduction of a simple form of road grader of ing a pair of upstanding levers ID, the levers comparatively light weight whereby it can be lying forward of a pulley II mounted on the '6 supported and carried by any type of tractor, upper portion of each of the members 4. Atfrom a position on which the operator may tached at one end to each lever I0 is a cable l2 easily raise and lower the scraper blade or make which passes around a pulley I I, the other end I various adjustments according to requirements. of said cable being suitably attached to any fixed 10 Another object is to construct a type of road part on the tractor platform but not necessary 10 grader of simple form but with advantages not to describe in detail.

resident in known approved forms of grading It is to be noted that in a swing of the hand machines, and which will require but a single lever 6 toward the position shown in broken lines operator for its manipulation. the cable will draw upon the frame structure Again, an object lies in providing a novel ar- 3, 3, 5 and lift or swing the same upon the rod rangement for raising and lowering the extremi- 2 as a pivot.

ties of the scraper blade, including a skid mem- Slidable upon each of the members or bars 3 ber to act for preventing sidewise or lateral shiftis a hanger which in this instance comprises a ing movement of the grader while at work. head I3 to slidably receive the bar and having a Still another object is that of so constructing depending leg I4, the extremity of the latter be- 20 a grader that the scraper blade may be very ing loosely connected in any suitable manner easily and quickly adjusted with exactness to any with an angle bar I5 supporting a scraper blade angle required for any given piece of work. Hi. In the present instance the leg It may re- Other advantages will be pointed out in the ceive a bolt I4 loosely extending through a hole 26 following specification aided by the appended in said angle bar, the head of which bolt serving 26' drawings forming part hereof wherein: to prevent separation of said leg from the latter. Figure 1 is a plan of a grading machine con- The bar 3 has a series of holes I! spaced along structed according to my invention. the same, a pin l8 being adapted to secure the Figure 1 is a side elevation in detail and in head in any position on said bar, it being oh- 0 part section, of certain parts entering into the served, that the head I3 at the right as seen in 3 invention. Figure 1, since adjusted forward of the position Figure 2 is a transverse sectional elevation of of the other head, at the left, serves to hold the I a skid member shown in Figure 1. right end of the scraper blade in advance of Figure 3 is a side elevation of the skid member the other. and mechanism for control thereof. In thus changing the angle of the blade in 35 Figure 4 is a side elevation of the grading mamoving an end thereof in aforward or rearward chine shown in Figure 1. direction the bars 3 which are loosely hung at F re 5 is a transverse Section Of a pp t one of their ends on the rod 2 permit the hangers for a scraper blade, not shown, and part of mech- I3-l4 to swing to and from each other, this anism for use in tilting said support. being permitted, also, due to the loose connec- 40 Figure 6 is a side elevation, on a larger scale, of tion of such hangers in the angle bar I5. a hanger member shown in Figure 4, and Since the angle bar I5 swivels on the two hang- Fi ure '7 is a front elevation of a gu member ers it is free to tilt laterally endwise as well as also shown in Figure 4. to rock. In rocking the cutting edge of the In Said drawings p Of a tor platform is scraper blade I6 may be presented at various 45 indicated at I to a rod 2 of which, for eX- angles with respect to the ground surface. This ample, is attached for vertical swinging moverocking is brought about by raising and lowering me t a Pa Of d members ba 3 wh ch the thread bars 30 by means of the hand wheels extend rearwardly from said platform. Each of M, That is to say, since the skids 26 are sup- 0 said bars 3 forms a Dari? Of a S parate braced ported at their rear ends upon the road surface frame structure includin a up g me er 4 those ends act as their fulcrums. If a thread bar and a di n member 5 connecting i m mof a given skid is raised the forward end of that ber 4 to said bar 3, the two frame structures skid will lift the blade I6 through the instrumenrising and falling dependently. tality of the brackets 29. Stated in another way. v

As best shown in Figure 4 a and leve B wit when a thread bar is operated to lift a skid at its 55 pivoted end the blade-end adjacent thereto is raised while the trailing edge of that skid rests upon or is dragging upon the road surface.

To the end that this angular adjustment may be had the short arm of a bent lever I9 extends through a bracket 20 secured to the angle bar I5 midway the length thereof, Figure 1, said bracket being permitted to swing about the leverend. Any means of providing for this free action may be used while preventing the separation of the bracket and lever. In this instance a nut 2! may be screwed upon the lever-end beneath the bracket wall while the extremity of the lever may lie in a tubular boss 22 of said bracket. The long arm of the lever extends forward within an upstanding yoke member 23, Figure 7, mounted on a bar 24', said yoke-member having spaced holes throughout its height for receiving a pin 25, said pin serving to hold the lever in any position in which it may be placed, and yet the long arm of the lever ill may rotate in any lateral tilt of the scraper blade.

Near each end of the angle bar If; is a member which I shall term a skid denoted at 26 to trail the scraper blade 16. This member may be wide and of some considerable length, being provided with a flange 2'! at each of its side edges paralleling each other and disposed at right angles to the longest measurement of the scraper blade IS. The forward end of the skid is pivoted to the lower edge of the angle bar l5 substantially as shown in Figures 2 and 3, a rod 28, for example, passing through the flanges 21, and through brackets 29 fixed on said angle bar, but one of which brackets is shown. Extending through a slot 26 in the skid near its pivoted end is a thread bar 38, this likewise extending through the upper member of said angle bar l5 and provided with a hand wheel 3! threaded upon said thread bar.

In order to adjust and fix the skid with respect to the scraper blade some such means as the following may be used.

The thread bar may extend through a member of two parts I5 affixed in suitable manner to the angle bar I5, said parts as shown in Figure 1 each having a flange I5 to engage about a flange 3! of the hub of said wheel. By this means or any equivalent thereof it is clear that the thread bar if non-rotatable, will be raised or lowered with respect to the angle bar according to the direction of wheel rotation and thus the skid is positively operated upon and remains fixed at any position with respect to the scraper blade. The lower end of the thread bar is suitably pivoted to the skid on lugs 32, for example, by means of a pin 33 by which means the said thread bar is held from rotating, the wheel 3i rotating with respect thereto to bring about the action named.

By rotating the said wheel the rear portion of the skid is raised or lowered with respect to the cutting edge ofthe scraper blade it.

In service the bars act as the draft elements, the scraper blade being drawn by means of the two hangers l3, l4 and the angle bar l5. As stated, the adjustment of the hangers along the bars 3 serve to adjust the blade at any angle to the line of advance. Due to the fact that the side flanges 2'! of the skids 23 can cut into the ground they serve to prevent any side shift of the machine in the angular attack of the scraper blade upon the work. The skids thus serve much the same as the familiar landside of a plow.

The scraper blade may be adjusted to any height desired above the road surface by means of the lever 6 so that a given depth of gravel or other surfacing material may be spread and at this time the skids may be adjusted to assist in supporting the blade at any such given height.

The hand wheels previously referred to since held by their flanged hubs within the parts 15' serve, when turned, to lift the skids 21, or to depress them, through the thread-bars 30. Through this instrumentality either end of the scraper may be raised or lowered to give it the lateral tilt desired. In attempts to depress the skid through the hand wheel and thread bar the rear or trailing end of the skid will resist lowering in bearing upon the road-surface, naturally causing lifting of the blade at that end carrying it. In this way either end of the blade can be raised and there maintained. Since the skids are, in effect, fixed with respect to said blade in any position of adjustment. Any such action is independent of and without respect to the lifting parts 4, G, H and, of course, not hindered by such parts.

While I have shown and described the parts 3, 4, 5 as two separate frame structures they may be parts of a single structure to be raised and lowered as a unit by means of the lever 6, there being suflicient looseness or play between the legs Ml of the hangers l3, and the angle bar 5, to permit lateral tilt of the scraper blade in the vertical adjustments of the skids 26 to ad just said blade for any angle of such tilt with respect to a horizontal line.

I claim:

1. A grading machine including in its construction, and in combination, a support constituting a draft device, a rearwardly extending framestructure pivoted to said support, mechanism on the support engaging with and adapted for imparting vertical swinging movement to said frame structure, a member including a scraper-blade, a lever-arm carried by the frame structure and operatively connected to the member at its middle length, means for fixing the lever-arm at a given elevation while permitting lateral tilt of said member and its blade, a pair of hangers carried by the structure loosely connected to the member and spaced from each other and spaced at opposite sides of the connection of said lever-arm with said member, a skid pivotally attached to each extremity of the member, and means at each skid to adjust it with respect to said member for imparting vertical movement to the same and said blade.

2. A machine for the purposes named including in combination with a support constituting a draft device, a frame structure pivoted to said support and extending rearward therefrom including fixed spaced uprights at its rear, mechanism on said support engageable with the frame structure for imparting vertical swinging movement thereto, a member suspended from the structure including a scraper-blade, a lever-arm operatively connected to the member at its middle length, means to fix the lever-arm at a given elevation while permitting lateral tilt of the member and its blade, and a pair of hangers carried by the structure loosely connected to the member and spaced from each other and spaced at opposite sides of the connection of said leverarm with said member.

3. A machine for the purpose named including in combination with a support constituting a draft device, a frame structure pivoted to said support and extending rearward therefrom in cluding fixed spaced uprights at its rear, mechanism on said support engageable with the frame structure for imparting vertical swinging movement thereto, a member suspended from the structure including a scraper-blade, a lever-arm operatively connected to the member at its middle length, means to fix the lever-arm at a given elevation while permitting lateral tilt of the member and its blade, a pair of hangers carried by the structure loosely connected to the member and spaced one at each side of the connection of said lever-arm with said member, a skid attached to each extremity of the member, and means at each skid to vertically adjust it with respect to the latter for adjusting it and the scraper-b1ade in a Vertical direction. 7

4. A machine for the purpose named including in combination with a support constituting a draft device, a frame structure pivoted to said support and extending rearward therefrom including fixed spaced uprights at its rear, mechanism on said support engageable with the frame structure for imparting vertical swinging movement thereto, a member suspended from said structure including a scraper-blade, a lever-arm operatively connected to the member at its middle length, means to fix the lever-arm at a given elevation while permitting lateral .tilt of the member and its blade, said member adapted to rotate in a horizontal plane on said lever-arm, a pair of hangers carried by the structure loosely connected to the member spaced one at each side of the connection of the lever-arm with said member, a skid attached to each extremity of the member, and means at each skid to vertically adjust it with respect to the latter for moving it and the scraper-blade in a vertical direction.

5. The invention according to claim 4 including means to secure the hangers in given adjustments upon said structure.

6. The invention according to claim 4 including the adjustability of the hangers along the frame structure in the line of advance of the machine.

'7. A grading machine including in its construction, and in combination, a support constituting a draft device, a rearwardly extending frame-structure pivoted to said support, mechanism on the support engaging with and adapted for imparting vertical swinging movement to the .frame-structure, a member including a scraperblade, a lever-arm carried by the frame-structure and cperatively connected to the member at its middle length, means for fixing the lever-arm at a given elevation while permitting lateral tilt of said member and its blade, a pair of hangers carried by the frame-structure and loosely connected to the member, said hangers being spaced apart one at each side of the place of connection of the member and lever-arm, a skid pivotally attached at one end to each extremity of the member and extending rearwardly therefrom, an upstanding thread-bar pivotally carried at one end on the skid between the extremities thereof, and a hand Wheel having threaded engagement with the thread-bar, said wheel being free to rotate but otherwise held with respect to the member.

JOSEPH B. SMITH. 

